The power of attraction

Family therapist Charis Wong says that women with unresolved childhood issues have the tendency to fall for bad boys.

She says that women from dysfunctional families, women with father issues, and women with self-esteem problems, may also fall into the cycle of dating "bad men".

Wong also says that women who are attracted to "bad men" find "good guys" boring and non-attractive.

Ashley (not her real name) speculates that phenomena of good women dating "bad men" has something to do with the combination of high divorce rates and media influence.

"This means kids from divorced families have also increased," she said.

"Girls who have not grown up in what is considered a 'normal' family, would not have seen functional mother-father relationships," said Ashley.

"They would have to mould their own views of what a relationship should be like and often, they take examples from movies or television series," she added.

"In my experience, being a child of divorce and growing up with the influence of TV shows, I have found myself attracted to a few 'bad boys'," revealed Ashley.

"It is not something that I was conscious of, I blamed myself for their faults and I thought it was normal," she added.

However, Ashley eventually broke free of her cycle of dating 'bad men': "After meeting 'good guys', I realised that my perception of what a good partner should be has been skewed by my parents' rough marriage."

Ashley added that making a conscious effort to boost your self-esteem is the most important part of breaking the vicious cycle.